Product Review: Mastercraft 3.5-amp Impact Wrench

For a while now, I have been wondering about the effectiveness of the corded electric impact wrenches I have seen advertised. Since I already have an air compressor and air tools, I really didn’t see much use for them. But, the more I heard from other home “do-it-yourself” types about how handy they were, well, I thought it was time try one out.

With a little time and patience, I found one in the Canadian Tire flyer for about $35, compared to the regular price of well over $100. Digging into my can of Canadian Tire money, I had just about enough for the wrench. With this sale, Canadian Tire was throwing in five impact sockets as a bonus (not Mastercraft units so not guaranteed).

This 3.5-amp impact wrench is fairly light, at no more than about three pounds, and has an aluminum front section. The handle and body of the unit is high-impact plastic. A button/switch over the trigger with arrows indicates the direction of the wrench, whether it is undoing or tightening the bolt, simple enough. Overall I found the wrench to be of good build quality, as were the bonus sockets (all in popular imperial sizes for wheel nuts).

Reading over the instructions, I found that you are not supposed to run it at more than 20-second intervals at a time under load, which is not too uncommon for these units. I could live with that restriction, as I generally would be using it for wheel nuts and the odd other quick fix.

First, I decided to tighten some garage door bolts on my old garage that had loosened over the years. With a little hunting I found a small enough half-inch socket to do the job. I was just about to give up and use a 3/8-inch socket adapter when I found the right half-inch unit. Keep nut size in mind if you have smaller household bolts like those on swing sets or wooden jungle gyms that need tightening. The speed-sensitive trigger on the wrench allowed me to easily tighten the bolts without putting them on too tightly, which worked out well.

As a child, Chris spent much of his time playing with toy cars in his parents’ basement; when his mother would tell him to go play outside, he made car sounds while riding his bicycle or dug roads for his toys in the flower garden. Now he gets to indulge his obsession playing with real cars that make their own cool noises, and gets paid for it.